Singing without sound
by Adara's Rose
Summary: King Trevelyans daughter has the most beautiful voice in the seas, but when she falls in love with a human she must learn to sing him her love-song without making a sound. A Thedasian Fairy Tale.
1. Chapter 1

The sea is as wide and deep as any man can fathom and in its depths it hides things you would never believe existed even if you sa them with your own eyes. However, for this story, the only part of any relevance is the sea king, Trevelyan, and his children.

King Trevelyan of the Seas had many children, seven in total, and though each of his sons were a great source of pride to him, he loved his only daughter best. And how could he not, when Lyssa's skin was as pale as the white sands, her spikes sharp as coral, her voice as wild and wonderful as the ocean itself? She was the pearl amongst her father's oysters, adored by every soul in his realm. He just wished she would be content with that.

But Lyssa was also a wandering soul, known to swim far too close to the surface and the human shores, and she loved nothing more than to sit or lie upon the rocks and feel the sun on her body. In the little part of the palace gardens, only flowers as red as the sun grew. From the day she turned sixteen and was officially allowed to swim close to the shore, never a day passed without her having breached the surface. King Trevelyan despaired, but he knew his daughter to be as willful as himself and so he let her go, praying to the spirits of the ocean and air to guard his child and bring her safely home upon the evening tide.

For two years trevelyan waited and fretted, but Lyssa card not. She saw little human children playing in the shallows, and marvelled at their lack of gills. how was ti, that they could swim without fins? She longed to join them, but she had been warned of hooks and nets enough times to be wary. Told again and again what would happen were she to be caught. She would die, despairing, and her body become naught but foam on the waes. Instead, she hid and watched. Every day there was something new to see; little children playing, young maids washing clothes, strong men bathing and laughing with their fellows. And Lyssa watched, safely hidden behind a rocky outcrop, wanting nothing more than to join them.

Then came the day the ship sailed out towards the horizon, and wild with excitement she followed them. Swimming beside it she could clearly see the humans on the deck, and one in particular caught her eye. It was a young male, with a tenderness about his face she had never seen before neither on land or in the seas. He had high cheekbones and kind eyes, and as he gazed longingly towards the horizon she fancied he was looking at her. She had seen him before, on the shores, but never this close. Beside him stood a male of a kind she had never seen before, tall and broad and strong with horns on his head, but he held little interest to her.

The next day, and the next, and for many days to follow, she swam beside the ship each day to watch the man with the sorrowful eyes. In time she learnt his name was Krem, and soon after she realised she loved him.

The day Lyssa learnt that she loved the human, there was a cruel, wild storm that rolled in over the sea with no warning. It threw itself at the ship, howling in fury, ripping the sails to shreds and shattering the hull. Lyssa had to fight with all her strength to keep close to the ship, and that was when she saw Krem being swept overboard and into the waters. At first, Lyssa was pleased as this meant Krem would sink down to her world, so she may show him the beauty of the coral and her little garden, and she would teach him to catch the best fish.

Then she remembered one of the few things they had taught her about humans when she was little. Apart from catching sea-folk with their nets and hooks, they had a disadvantage; they could not breathe under water. Lyssa, realising that Krem could not see her world for he would die long before he sank deep enough, swam to his rescue.

Though he was heavy to carry in the angry waters, Lyssa was determined and soon she had his face above the surface. the winds had finally calmed, and it was with all the endurance she had left that she bore him to the shores.

Lyssa carefully laid Krem out in the sand, watching his beautiful face for signs of life, when she heard voices. In fear, she dove back into the waters and watched from a safe distance as a group of human came to search the shores, no doubt looking for survivors of the wreck.

One of them, a woman with a kind face, saw Krem and ran to him, leaning over him as Lyssa had. And when he woke and saw her, he thought he had seen his saviour. He smiled at her, and she smiled at him as she helped him to his feet and supported him on their way up to the castle, away from the shore.

Lyssa watched with a heavy heart, not knowing why she was troubled. But her song rang out over the waters, ladened with sorrow.


	2. Chapter 2

If King Trevelyan had feared for his daughter before, it was nothing to how troubled he was now. Though she swam up to the surface each day, her face was troubled now when she returned and she planted no more ed flowers in her little garden. But she would not tell him what made her heart heavy, or why she sang so wretchedly each night.

When nigh on a month had passed since she had saved Krem, lyssa could no longer bear not seeing him on the shores and decide that i he would not come to the sea, she would walk the land in search of him. But there was only one who could make such a feat possible. The sea witch, Morrigan.

* * *

Morrigan lived in a cave where he sea and land met, eternally churning out a maelstrom of war just outside the entryway. Lyssa know the dangers; if she got caught she would be thrown onto the shores and left for the humans to find, and she would not survive. But she was her father's daughter, and so she braved the dangerous waters to approach the sea witch.

At first, Morrigan laughed mockingly at the little mermaid, telling her to swim back home to her father, but when she refused the witch finally relented.

"I shall make you a potion to make you human" she sighed, "but the price will be steep. Know that though you will dance with more grace than any living woman ever has, each step you take upon the shores will hurt as if you step on knives, and nevermore shall you swim the sea or see your father and brothers again. But that is not all; should your human give his heart and hand to another, then the first dawn after he has wedded, your heart will break and you will become naught but seafoam. Are you prepared to suffer so, little one?"

Lyssa insisted she was, and Morrigan sighed.

"Very well. But you are very foolish. Your tithe shall be thy tongue, for I must make this potion with my own blood."

And so the witch cut out Lyssa's tongue, and made her the potion.

Lyssa swam to the surface one last time, dragging herself onto the sands. There, she drank the potion and the most horrifying pain she had ever dared imagine sliced through her as the potion worked its magic. If she'd had a tongue, her screams would have been heard to her father's underwater palace, but not a sound did she make in her agony. Finally, she mercifully passed out.

* * *

Lyssa woke upon the shores to a man leaning over her, eyes full of concern, and she smiled when she saw it was Krem whose shadow fell over her.

"Thank the maker" he breathed, "can you speak?"

Lyssa opened her mouth to answer him, but all that came out was a rush of blood from the gaping wound where her tongue had been. Ashamed and horrified, she turned from him and covered her face with shaking hands. She could not bear him seeing her mutilation - or her despair.

But Krem, to his credit, did not flinch away; he put his arm around Lyssa's slim shoulders, and gently he led her from the shoreline. And though it was as if knives were driven into her feet with each step she took, her smile was as bright as the sun as he supported her all the way to the castle.

* * *

As time passed, Lyssa learnt that Krem was no prince, but a knight in the service of the King of the Castle. But it mattered not to her; she would have loved him i he had been a pauper, and all she did was for his pleasure. Soon, his favourite pastime was seeing her dance, for none moved with her beauty and grace. And though each step was agony, she dancd for him whenever he wished it of her. It was her only way of showing her love for him.

* * *

Nigh a month after she had arrived, Krem took her out in his carriage. This was something they did often, and Lyssa loved every moment and everything she saw as they drove past. But this time, Krem did not indulge his mute companion, instead he stared straight ahead at the coachman with a face set in stone.

"The king wants me to marry" he said, finally, and Lyssa felt her heart stutter in fear.

"But I shall not, for I do not love the girl who has been chosen for me. I can only ever love the one who saved me from drowning, and I do not even know her name."

Lyssa felt elated, for it was as good as hm swearing his love to her - it was, after all, she who had saved him. But then her heart fell, as she realised he did not know. He had never seen her on the shores, only the human girl who had received his smile. Her eyes widened and brightened with grief, but no sob or tear fell, and Krem did not notice her plight.

It was days, but to Lyssa mere moments passed between the carriage ride and the arrival of the Lady Maryden. And had she had a voice she would have screamed, for it was the woman from the shore and Krem came to greet her with a smile that should have been Lyssa's.

"It's you!" He cried in delight, "it is you, it is truly you!"

If she could, Lyssa would have wept.


	3. Chapter 3

The wedding took place at sea, for it was the sea that had brought the lovers together. And all agreed, that the only thing more joyous to experience at the wedding feast than the bride's singing, was when Lyssa danced. She danced a dance of love and joy, of longing and hope, but did not let on the pain it bought her.

The night grew late, and still, and Krem and his bride went to their wedding bed. The guests ended their revels, retreating to their beds, and eventually only one was still on deck. Lyssa danced alone in the moonlight, and now she danced her sorrow for no one but the stars.

Then, the stillness of the water's surface shattered as her brothers, one by one, came into her sight.

"Sister" they cried in despair, and she would have wept if she could as she ran to the railing, reaching for them. That was when she saw their heads, bare and bloodied as if cut by knives.

"We traded our hair to the witch for this" they cried, handing her a blade of fine steel. "And she told us you can come back to us. Please, sister, take this knife and bury it in the knight's heart. When his life's blood wets your feet, they will turn back into a fishtail and you can come back home."

Lyssa took the knife, kissed her brothers, and watched as they still wailing vanished beneath the seas.

Slowly, she walked to the cabin in which Krem slept, and she stood by the side of the bed. For long moments she stood there, taking in every line of his face, counting the freckles on his cheeks and each of his dark eyelashes. Then she leaned down slowly, and pressed a trembling kiss on his lips. She stroked Maryden's cheek, then turned her back and threw the knife as far away from her as she could.

As the knife clattered unwanted to the floor, through the window fell the first rays of the new day. Lyssa let out a single, perfect note of song, and then she dissolved into foam that was swept away on the salty sea breeze.

And tough Krem and Maryden searched the ship all over, they never found a trace Lyssa ever having existed at all.


End file.
